day 31: One month!

I've offically completed Month One of this year long challenge. It's been a blast, and I really think I'll be able to keep this up for the entire year.

Here are a few pics from this weekend, I was sick all day so I don't have any new pictures.

Now back to the Grammy's and The Dugger Special.

Can I just say, I love love love Lady Gaga.

day 30: mmmmmmuffins.

Ever since I was little both sets of my grandparents have called me muffins...or mega muffins...meggie muffins etc. The title made me think of that, I'm fairly certian that you really don't care lol. I love my grandparents, alot.

Today was rough. I hit a brick wall and spent most of the morning in bed crying. Why...I don't know. It was strange. My mom eventually came in to talk to me, I think she finally understands sort of where I'm coming from...so hopefully things will get a bit better now.

We spent the morning cleaning up my room....I felt like I was in an episode of Hoarders. Sad but true. We got rid of alot of stuff, organized and put stuff away. I need to make a trip to Ikea soon in order to get some shelves and a shelving unit thing.

Tonight, I made muffins after dinner. I got a bit creative and made three different kinds (I'll admit, they were from a ready made package lol).

There was plain oatmeal, oatmeal chocolate chip and an experimental kind....Oatmeal Blueberry Strusel. They were delicious and I think I may have to make more lol. Kind of like a coffee cake muffin. mmm.

day 29: shopping fixes everything.

So after my funk yesterday (which is a long and complicated story) I decided to skip school today to sleep in. Jake and I woke up at about 8, I dropped him off at daycare shortly after 9, and then I ran some errands.

I went to Wal*Mart and bought some yogurt ($1/tub!) and the movie Ps. I love you among a few other things.

Then I went to Old Navy, where this weekend if you wear red, a maple leaf or anything that says Canada on it you get 30% off your purchase. I ended up buying Jake 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of flip flops and a hat for $48. Talk about an awesome deal.

Then I went to Michaels and bought some more stuff for that reward chart I posted about before...I changed my mind and now I'm making it out of felt because I think it'll look nicer. I also bought wall decals (planets, stars etc) which will look awesome in our room.

After that, I met a friend for coffee. It was really nice to see her again, I wish we could hang out more often, but we're both really busy. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon. She took me to a store in Uptown Waterloo called Kid Kouture. It's a boutique that sells highend childrens clothing (brands like Blu, Deux par Deux...Catamini?) Anyway, I bought 5 shirts from there for him at like $15 a peice (a great deal if you ask me). They are having a huge sale on all Fall and Winter clothing - its all 50% off! Designer clothing for half the price....fabulous if you ask me! It's one of my new favourite stores I think.

My Loot.

Shirts from Kid Kouture.

When I got home, a dress I bought the other day had arrived! I was hesitant about buying it because I didn't know how it would fit, but I looooooove it! I can't wait for spring so I can wear it all the time.

Cute huh? It looks funny because a) its a mirror picture and b) my jeans are still on...but isn't it adorable?! I'm glad the London Moms talked me into it.

All in all...it was a very productive day. I'm glad I took time for myself today...lets hope this improves my mood for awhile.

day 28: bad, bad mood.

I have a serious case of fullmoonitis....mixed with pms and stress.

no pictures, no nothin.

grr.

day 27: if you..

give a kid a camera.

this is what you'll get.

day 26: so kill me...

I'm cheating.

I didn't post today (aka yesterday). I was having computer problems and couldn't get anything to work properly.

Looks like my 'puter may be heading to the Dr. pretty soon.

Imma miss her.

day 25: nutjob

nice hat kiddo....

it's totally backwards.

day 24: meal plans

I know alot of people say that meal planning helps them cut down on both time spent trying to decide what to have for dinner as well as the amount spent on groceries.

I'm thinking I may give it a try for a couple weeks. I do most (correction: all) of the cooking around here, so laying out exactly what I'm going to make and when would definately cut down on the stress of dinner time.

I recently bought a recipe binder from Chapters to hold all of my recipes, so if I get that sorted out, I could probably make this work for us. I'm trying to get us all eating healthier, and I would like to start bringing a lunch with me to school to cut down on my meal expenses (Last week I spent $60 on lunch, coffee and eating out *eeeeek*)

What would you bring to school for a lunch? Nothing that needs reheating - so that kind of limits things huh? What about breakfast? What are some of your go-to dinners? Do you prep some things in order to make dinner time easier? What if you have picky eaters (Jake, Dad and Brother)? Any recipe suggestions?

Alot of questions, I know.

day 23: a lazy saturday

It's just Jake and I this weekend because my parents are gone to my brothers hockey tournament in Niagra Falls.

So this morning, when my boy requested chocolate chip pancakes, I couldn't help but oblige.

His all time favourite way to eat pancakes....Mickey Mouse!

This is what my boy was doing while I cooked

Then for lunch, he had a lunchable...and obviously he was in a silly mood. (in reality, he was telling me that he didn't want his picture taken....again).

After naptime, we went to my grandmas for dinner. It was delicious and we had a great visit. I love my Gram. She's probably my all time favourite person. We got home around 8:30 and I tried to put the boy to bed, but here we are at 10:30pm and he's still awake. He would probably fall asleep quickly if I turned off the computer and tv....but I love our cuddle time.

Tomorrow, we're going to Chuck E Cheese for lunch as per his request. I've never been, but hopefully it isn't too busy.

day 22: reward chart

I've been meaning to do something like this for awhile, but I never really got around to it. With the attitude he's had recently and the tantrums/general fussiness that has been going on I think we need to do something in order to 'earn' privileges.

I googled reward chart and found this.

So my plan is to make something similar, but on a foam board instead of felt. If it doesn't turn out, I won't be really sad cause it cost me about $4 for all the stuff at the dollar store. But I'm hoping it'll work, atleast for a little while.

I'm planning on putting activites such as

- going to bed on time

- brushing my own teeth

- getting dressed in the morning

- doing 3 pages (from an activity book - letters, numbers, shapes etc)

- no fussing (he freaks whenever I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do)

I haven't figured out what kind of rewards he'll get..but they will be things like

- for X stars, he'll earn X

I think if he goes the whole week with a full chart, he'll get either a new movie, a new book, a day out with mommy or $5 to spend at the dollar store? Maybe....I'm not sure yet lol.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

day 21: running low on ideas

I could write about my day to day life, but it's really just the same thing everyday. Nothing exciting at the moment. School, home, Jake - rinse and repeat.

I'm hoping to re-organize our room this weekend, so I'll probably be posting before and after photos soon.

Off to bed I go, I really suck at this whole blogging thing when there isn't anything to write about.

day 20: gettin' healthy

So Monday marked a good start to year 2010. I reinstated my gym membership and have sworn to myself that I WILL meet my goals by the end of 2010. My friend Kayla joined the gym, and we've made a deal to make the most of the membership.

I have approximately 40lbs to lose to be where I think I would be comfortable. So far, I'm down 3lbs. I'll be weighing in on Friday mornings and will probably post my weekly loss so that I can keep a tab on it. Ideally,  I would like to lose most of it before my birthday (June 19) but I will be more realistic and say half by the end of the semester which is April.

My plan is to do portion control, with some weight watchers tracking thrown in. I'll be going to the gym 3 times a week (M,W,F) and doing the 30 Day Shred atleast twice a week.

If you have any tips/suggestions/advice/recipes etc...please don't hesitate to share them. I'm looking for all the assistance I can get. This is an ambitious plan, but I really really need to get out of this rut.

A before photo....not the greatest but it'll do. I'll try to take a new one tomorrow.

day 19: Will edit in the am.... fell asleep and didn't want to turn laptop back on.

gotta love falling asleep on the couch and forgetting to do your entry for the day.

thankfully the ipod can write titles, therefore I technically didn't miss a day ;)

school is catching up with me, exhaustion is on the horizion.

day 18: just pictures today

^^^
Thats a wrap swing. I have a video too, I may try to upload it for tomorrow.

the challenge from LM this week was wood....this is what I got.

I'll probably try again tomorrow lol.

day 17: a good, good night

I'm waiting on pictures to be posted on facebook from last night, but I'm not really sure how long its going to take...It figures that I would forget my camera.

It was a great time, I'm SO glad that I decided to go, and I really wish I could do it more often. We had a blast - there were 13 of us in 3 hotel rooms, celebrating my friend Lindsay's birthday. Long night, super fun. B-day girl ended up getting kicked out just before midnight so a few of us adventured around Guelph for a bit, ate sketchy chinese food and spent a good 30+ minutes trying to hail a cab. All in all, it was a good night.

Today was my brothers birthday celebration (aka cake with family). A girl from school made his cake...and its absolutely amazing! It's also my Grandma's birthday, so we had a cake for her too.

its the Volcom logo in his favourite colour

January is a pretty busy month for birthdays around here.

day 16: a night on the town

I'm off to Guelph for the night.

One of my girlfriends invited me out to the Palace with her and a bunch of friends.

I'll edit with pictures tomorrow...I've got some good ideas so hopefully I can snap some before it gets too messy. ;)

happy saturday!

day 15: foto friday

my rings.

day 14: happy birthday little brother

Today is my baby brothers 17th birthday. I can hardly believe that he's getting so old....It feels like yesterday that I found out I was pregnant (I was 17).

We went to Moose WinDOski's as Jake would say and Jordan's girlfriend Aly came with us.

I'm exhausted, so I'm going to keep it short. But here are a few pictures of them tonight.

Jordan and Aly

Aly and Jake....he loves her

Again with the no pictures thing...

Cuddles with Grandma

day 13: C'mon now.

Today the College Professors voted 57% in favour of a strike. Therefore OPSEU(the college faculty union) has the power to call a strike at any time if they cannot reach an agreement on their contract terms.

FFS.

I don't get it. Well...thats a lie. I do understand their requests, however I don't understand WHY they won't accept what is presented to them. It's a damn good thing I'm taking Labour Relations this semester...I think I need some theory on why anyone would choose to be part of a union.....what I know right now makes me scratch my head.

Anyway...looks like as early as February I could have an extended break from school *insert eyeroll here*

day 12: growing pains = no sleep for us.

aw man.

This was the first day I didn't actually do the entry. I tried, but as I opened it Jake woke up screaming and didn't stop.

He has had growing pains off and on since he was little. His dad apparently had them really bad, so I'm not surprised.

I finally had to give him (read: squirt down his throat) some motrin. He was out cold in 10 minutes...poor kiddo was exhausted. He slept on me while we watched The Good Wife...and then we both went to bed.

I tried to do the entry from my Ipod Touch, but it would only let me write in the title line. Boo!

day 11: a day i'll never forget

Four years ago today, my life was turned upside down.
I was 17, and 6 months pregnant. I was in my last year of high school and had decided to skip my last period class in order to catch up on some homework. I got home and logged on to msn. A moment later, Donnie (his best friend) sent me a message telling me that he was going to call me because he had something important to say and didn't want to do it over msn. At the same moment, I got a text message from my best friend. She asked where I was (classes were over and she usually drove me home). She said she needed to talk to me right away.

Donnie called and told me that there had been an accident, and at the same moment Erica texted me to tell me that she didn't want to tell me via text, but she wanted to be the one to tell me that he had been killed early that morning.

I was frozen. I couldn't cry. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. He told me that he was on his way to ID the body, but that it was Tyrone. He told me I needed to someone so that I wasn't alone.

I called my mom and told her I needed her to come home. I couldn't tell her why. It seemed like a lifetime before she got home. I sat on my bed, frozen. The moment she walked in the door I fell apart.

It took along time before I stopped feeling numb. I miss him like crazy and he would have been so proud of our little boy. I never had the chance to tell him that it was indeed a boy...however we both had a feeling from the beginning that it was.

Some say that there are 5 stages of grief. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.
After 4 years, I think I've finally managed to make to acceptance. I'm still sad. I still miss him. He's a part of me and he will live on forever in our son. I know that my sadness will never really go away, but the intensity has started to diminish. I've learned to function with my grief, which has been a long time coming. I no longer blame myself for what happened.

Do you ever feel like someone out there is trying to tell you something? I often feel like a certian song comes on the radio for a reason. Like the lyrics can somehow help me work through a problem, or overcome an obstacle...or in this case...know that its okay to move on. That he knows I loved him even if we were angry with eachother...and that somehow things happen for a reason.

This was the song and I truly feel like he wanted me to hear it today.

I want you to know
That it doesn't matter
Where we take this road
Someone's gotta go
And I want you to know
You couldn't have loved me better
But I want you to move on
So I'm already gone

Rest in Peace
Tyrone James Leppard
December 27, 1986 - January 11, 2006
-στο θÜνατο βρßσκουμε την ελευθερßα-
in death we find freedom